Ciis Public Programs & Performances

Poet, journalist, and professor Nicholas Powers describes his youth as growing up with tales of counter culture for bedtime stories. In this episode, he shares stories from his journey exploring psychedelic experiences and events in a discussion about what psychedelic integration could be in the 21st Century with licensed Naturopathic Doctor Natalie Metz. This episode contains explicit language.

Shaman Durek, a sixth-generation shaman, is the inheritor of a rich legacy of ancient wisdom. He applies this deep-rooted knowledge in a thoroughly modern context—advising everyone from celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Nina Dobrev, and royals around the world, to international corporate executives. In this episode, Kelly Ryan, the founder of Anchor Meditation, has a conversation with Shaman Durek about his life and works. They discuss the shamanic keys outlined in his book Spirit Hacking, and share lessons about how these keys can help you to tap into your own personal power—banishing fear and darkness from your life in favor of light, positivity, and strength.

In this episode, naturalist Maya Elson talks with Lawrence Millman about his life and work as an author and mycologist exploring the fascinating world of fungi.

In this episode, Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future, talks with internet pioneer and renowned filmmaker Tiffany Shlain about her strategy for living in our 24/7 world: turning off all screens for 24 hours each week. She and her family call it “Technology Shabbat” or “Living 24/6”. Over the past decade, this weekly practice has completely changed their lives—giving them more time, productivity, connection, and presence.

Author Nishta J. Mehra is the daughter of Indian American immigrants, the wife of a white woman from Texas, and the mother of an adopted black child. Her life is a series of intersecting boundaries—of race, gender, sexuality, and religion—and her essays have examined the ways she navigates the various communities and ideologies that make up her family's life. In this episode, Nishta is joined by integral psychology professor and therapist Daniela Koenig for a conversation about family and motherhood, race, and raising a black child in America today.

Join renowned ethnopharmacologist and author Dennis McKenna for this engaging talk combining ethnobotany, psychopharmacology, history, and the philosophical reflections of a luminary in this field.

In her book, For the Love of Men, award-wining journalist Liz Plank offers a witty, insightful, and deeply researched guide for what we can all do about toxic masculinity. In this episode, Liz is joined by therapist and Bay Area men’s group leader Sarwang Parikh for a conversation about the future of gender roles and how finding a new way forward for men has the possibility to change the world. This episode contains explicit language.

The rise and transformation of information warfare is perhaps one of the most significant global trends of the last few years. The result is a circus atmosphere of constant lies, shock humor, absurdity, and fear-mongering designed to disorient us and undermine our sense of truth. In this episode, digital intelligence expert Nick Monaco talks with award-winning author and disinformation expert Peter Pomerantsev about what he has learned working behind enemy lines exploring multinational information wars.

Mari Andrew is an author and illustrator who shares her work daily on Instagram with over 1 million devoted fans around the world. Her first book, Am I There Yet? debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. In this episode, Mari is joined by fellow author and illustrator Nicole J. Georges for a conversation about finding personal healing by creating work that shines a light on feelings we all have, but don’t always reveal. This episode contains explicit language.

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City, and on years of reporting around the world, author and journalist Suketu Mehta tackles this issue head-on. In this conversation with multicultural counseling expert Jyoti Rao, Suketu talks about his latest book This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto and his belief that immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

How can we be more mindful when our world seems broken beyond repair? Tim Desmond—esteemed Buddhist scholar and lecturer on Psychology at Yale Medical School—has fresh, engaging answers to this important question. Join integrative health expert Megan Lipsett for a conversation with Tim about his approach to mindfulness practices designed for surviving the sometimes-miserable world we currently live in. This episode contains explicit language.

Join Bay Area author and organizer Kim Tran for a brash and enlightening conversation with reporter and linguist Amanda Montell about gendered language and the way it shapes us. This episode contains explicit language.

Join equity expert Y-Vonne Hutchinson for this conversation with author, editor, and Baltimore native D. Watkins about the lessons he’s learned navigating two very distinct worlds—the hood and the elite sanctums of prominent black thinkers and public figures.

Gender reconciliation activist and CIIS Professor Alka Arora offers an expansive and deeply ecological vision—inviting us to move beyond critique to focus more on the world we want to co-create.

In this episode, bioethics professor Osagie K. Obasogie talks with author George Estreich about what he has learned as the father of a young woman with Down syndrome exploring the troubled territory where biotechnology and disability meet.

The Enneagram is a personality typing system with ancient symbolic origins that has a sneaky way of revealing who we are and why we do the things we do. In this episode, wellness coach Kayleigh Martin talks with author Hannah Paasch about the benefits of learning our personality traits and her book Millenneagram—a revamped approach to the Enneagram that gives us permission to be our truest, enough-as-is, bad-ass selves.

In this talk, philosophy professor Jacob Sherman discusses the role that philosophy might play in diagnosing and responding to the our global climate crisis.

As artificial intelligence evolves, so too does human culture. In this conversation, futurist Nicole Sallak Anderson and UC Berkeley professor Edward Lee discuss meeting machines and how technology is changing the humans creating it.

This episode features Bay Area performers and writers including a BART train operator, a recent Pride Parade Grand Marshall, and more. Presented in collaboration with San Francisco’s Porchlight storytelling series and The Contemporary Jewish Museum, each storyteller explores their understanding of self and the fluidity of identity.

In this conversation, psychologist Christine Brooks talks with author and social critic Erica Williams Simon about how she got “story smart” to challenge the narratives about fear, work, identity, success, love, and life that we have all been taught.